How do scientist reconstruct past climate conditions on Earth? One way of doing this is by culturing living planktonic Foraminifera and analyzing their shell composition under present day conditions in the world Oceans. For over 30 years scientist are researching these tiny planktonic creatures to unlock living conditions that lies hidden within their shells. With these insights it’s possible to create a suit of tools to analyze the same Foraminifera shells recovered from past times and use them to reconstruct climate and Ocean conditions over million of years.

YouTube, ScienceMediaNL’s Channel, 3 October 2011. Video.